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Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C)
March 18, 2008
Citi Pakistan Celebrates International Women's Month
Legal & Social Experts Lead Interactive Session on Women's Rights in the Workplace
"One of the most important elements of Citi's leadership has been our longstanding commitment to diversity. We are committed to a culture of inclusion and opportunity, evident in our more than favorable female employment rate of 30% versus 2% nationally within the corporate workforce, strong representation on our management committee, and our employee-focused policy framework," said Aftab Ahmed, Country Business Manager (CBM) – Global Consumer Group, at the International Women's Month session organized by Citi Pakistan for its female employees.
In keeping with the spirit of the month, the program focused on the rights of women in the workplace. Attended by Citi's female staff, the program was led by a panel of five comprising CBM Aftab Ahmed, Barrister Danish Zuberi – a specialist in civil, constitutional & corporate law, Women's Rights activist Ms. Uzma Noorani, Barrister Aliya Yusuf, a senior partner at Orr Dignam & Co, and Citi's HR Head Pouru Sidhwa.
A discussion on local laws governing the social, domestic and professional frameworks for women by Barrister Zuberi was followed by an historical perspective on women's rights in Pakistan by Uzma Noorani, who traced the evolution of women's issues since the 80's when advocacy/action groups such as War Against Rape and Women's Action Forum (WAF) were created. A Q&A session brought to a close what one participant described as "a wholly engrossing and relevant experience."
"This has been an eye opening experience – I had no idea of the struggle women in Pakistan have had to and unfortunately still face in terms of asserting their right to equality in terms of social and economic opportunity. At Citi, we tend to take the absence of glass ceilings for granted and it's sad that this is not the case everywhere in our country," said participant Marina Khan.
"I particularly enjoyed the Barrister Zuberi's overview of civil and marriage laws. I just feel so much better knowing that, contrary to popular belief, our legal system does support women in terms of marriage, divorce and custody," said another participant.
"The Q&A gave me an opportunity to understand Citi's employment contracts and I hope we have more of such educational events," said Saleha Shafiq of CMB.
Citi has a host of progressive, female-friendly programs such as best-in-class maternity, flexible work and employee assistance schemes. Citi also actively strives to increase the percentage of women it hires, already among the highest in the industry. In 2007, "Times/Aurora Top 50 Places Where Women Want to Work" named Citi the winner in the diversity category.
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Citi
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